Progressive activist David Hogg wants “a damn answer” from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who has yet to endorse New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, but shared a theory as to why this hasn’t happened.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend: Primetime,” cohost Elise Jordan played a clip of Jeffries refusing to endorse Mamdani in an interview earlier Sunday morning. She then visibly chuckled while noting that he just “can’t seem to give an answer.”
“Yeah, it is not a complicated question,” Hogg said. “Are you going to endorse the Democratic nominee for the city that you represent part of or are you not? It is not rocket science — are you going to endorse him or are you not?”
Mamdani handily defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City’s Democratic primary election earlier this year. When asked Sunday on CNN’s “The State of the Union” why he continues to withhold his endorsement, Jeffries claimed that he hasn’t.
“We are engaging in a conversation about the future of New York City, about the issues that need to be addressed, particularly the housing crisis,” he argued, adding: “These are all issues to be worked through, and we’ll continue to work through them.”
Hogg decried the noncommittal answer Sunday as the opposite of Democratic leadership, and said the American people are “craving clear answers from their politicians” — rather than “essays” in which they seemingly justify impeding their public mandates.
“Just give us a damn answer,” Hogg demanded.
When asked to speculate about the lack of an endorsement, he suggested the reason is bigger than the housing crisis Jeffries cited. Hogg argued “a major part of it has to do with serious disagreements that he has [with Mamdani] over Israel-Palestine.”
HuffPost has reached out to Jeffries for comment.
“What a lot of people will not tell viewers on this channel that I’m not afraid to say is, in conversations about congressional races, you know what the three most common questions that I hear are when people talk about who to support in the race?” he said.
“It’s what is AIPAC doing, what is crypto doing, and what was their last quarter’s fundraising,” Hogg said. “That is 90% of the conversations that are happening in this town.”
AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is the most powerful pro-Israel group in Washington, D.C. Mamdani has criticized Israel’s war on Gaza repeatedly throughout his campaign, while Jeffries was called a “puppet” Tuesday by a rather notable radio host.
Hogg argued Sunday, “And people like Hakeem Jeffries are terrified to talk about that because they’re afraid of a lot of those groups, because they have tons of money.”
“But the answer is, if everybody behaves that way, we’re never actually going to rebuild a better government that stands up to special interests and stands up for the American people,” he said.
